Kartik and Gulveer win silver, bronze; end wait for medal

Gulab Chand's bronze in 1998 was India's last 10,000m medal; long jumpers Aldrin and Sreeshankar qualify for the final

- Shantanu Srivastava

Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh ensured India had a second successive medal day in athletics as they took silver and bronze respectively in the 10,000m at the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Centre Stadium on Saturday. Kumar clocked 28 minutes, 15.38 seconds and Gulveer 28:17.21 on the pleasant evening, both personal bests, as they finished behind Bahrain's Ethiopian-born Birhanu Balew (28:13.62).

The twin medals ended India's a 25-year wait for a podium in the gruelling event, since Gulab Chand's bronze at the 1998 Bangkok Asiad. Balew won the 5,000m at the 2018 Jakarta Games.

The two medals came after woman shot putter Kiran Baliyan's bronze on Friday.

The 26-year-old Gulveer arrived in Hangzhou on the back of a 5,000m bronze at the Asian Championships but it was the first major medal for Kumar who had set a target of breaking the 15-year-old national record that is in the name of Surendra Singh (28:02.89).